Saturday, 20 February 2016

Heritage hunting in Finnish forests (2014)

In state forests, the search is on for
ancient artefacts and sites. Archaeologists working for Metsähallitus, the
state enterprise managing forests, have been scouring the woods for five
summers. Their oldest finds date back
to the Stone Age.

Archaeologists Esa Hertell and Olli Eranti
move through the woods of the eastern municipality of Ilomantsi, looking for
signs of human life from times gone by.

Hertell and Eranti work for Metsähallitus,
the state-owned enterprise that administers more than 12 million hectares of
state-owned land and water areas in Finland.

At the southern tip of Lake Hattujärvi, the
men stop to examine a depression in the ground, which turns out to be the floor
of a Stone Age dwelling. People stayed here more than 9,000 years ago.

Hertell says such sites can often be found
by reasoning.

“These kinds of Stone Age sites are usually
found on sandy lake-shores, on the sunny side,” the scientist notes, adding:
“Sometimes there are coincidences, but we first look at the map and then go to
opportune places.”

While basing most of their work on maps,
Hertell and Eranti sometimes also get tipped off by locals as well as other
Metsähallitus forest planners.

Four million hectares, with euros to match

This is the fifth summer such an inventory
has been carried out in forests across the country. Four million euros from
wood sales have been budgeted towards this work of mapping out cultural
heritage hidden in Finnish nature. By next year, when the project finishes,
some four million hectares of land should have been surveyed.

“This work will benefit every Finn who is
interested from where we come from, what life was like before, and what lies
here in the forests,” Hertell says.

A dream job

Aiding Hertell is archaeology student Olli
Eranti. For him, surveying the land for ancient findings is a dream job, and in
many ways very similar to the kinds of work that graduated archaeologists would
do.

While searching the shoreline of Lake
Koitere, Eranti spots a group of white, sharp-edged stones under the water.
According to the men, these stones were used by Stone Age people to cut meat
and scrape out skins.

Eranti marks the spot in a computer. The
data will later be moved to Metsähallitus and National Board of Antiquities
databases.

The Board of Antiquities’ heritage registry
is a database open to the public, while Metsähallitus will use the data in
making decisions on protecting sites.